


Search and Rescue

by greatbriton



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-27
Updated: 2012-10-27
Packaged: 2017-11-17 02:55:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/546879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greatbriton/pseuds/greatbriton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rhodey’s POV during the time Tony Stark was captured during Iron Man.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Search and Rescue

Rhodey woke with a gasp and Tony’s name on his lips. He was being held down by strange hands and unknown voices insisting that he not move. They were nothing but blurs and noises to him as he fought for focus. His mind reeled, his body spinning and falling but he could feel the solid ground under his back. 

“Tony,” he heard his voice call out, distant and hollow. 

Tried to force his way through the maze of hands again but they grew stronger. More persistent. They were able to hold him down easier than they should have been able to. Why wouldn’t they let him go? A bright light flashed into his left eye forced Rhodey to turn his head and screw his eyes shut from pain. His head was forcibly turned back to face the light again and he groaned. What were they doing to him? Rhodey had to breathe. Breathe. Figure out where he was. It was a man above him with a flashlight. Pointed right at his other eye that he was holding open between two long fingers. It hurt. Everything hurt. He felt trapped like he was… like…

It was a trap. They had stepped into a trap.

He remembered thinking “How?” briefly before the engagement took all his attention away from inner worries. Rhodey issued out orders, without any further delay, over the deafening noise of firepower being rained down on them. Which way was it coming from? How was he going to get them out of this? There was nobody on the gun. 

Rhodey pushed over the seat and through the HMMWV to the come up at the turret to take control of the roof mounted machine gun. It was their best chance at covering fire. The attack was already being radioed in. They had to hold out long enough for a rescue to have time to be deployed. 

With no time to think and the screams of his men falling around him it was the only thing Rhodey could do as he honed in on the positions of the shooters around them and began firing. A sinking and cold realization came over him as he continued to fire and the attack wasn’t letting up. There were too many of them. It was only a matter of time.

He remembered thinking that it was all bullshit. That he was going to go out like that. It had never occurred to him that it’d be so easy for whoever it was that did it. 

“Rhodey!”

Barely audible over the continual barrage of bullets being fired and pinging over the metal of the vehicle, Rhodey thought he was imagining things. Until the call came again.

“Rhodey!”

He turned because only that voice could make him forget about all this hell. Oh God. Tony.

Even now. Even as he was sure that any second now one of those lunatics was going to get him with a direct hit, Rhodey could feel his heart stop and wonder how he hadn’t been strong enough to keep Tony away from all of this. He had let that smile and Tony’s confidence make him weak. Now Tony was going to pay the price along with Rhodey and that scared Rhodey more than sitting there in that turret with each bullet getting closer. 

“Get down!” he finally screamed. It felt like it had been minutes that he had been staring at Tony in shock but only a fraction of a moment. He waved his arm and pointed down to give Tony a visual in case he couldn’t hear him. Where was his protection?

Tony.

“Rhodey!” Tony shouted again. He didn’t seem to grasp what Rhodey was telling him. Maybe he was too scared, maybe he was hurt. Rhodey wanted to go to him and push him down into the dirt but he knew his best chance of keeping Tony safe was to keep the attention on himself. Keep the covering fire up as much as he could. 

“Tony! Get down!” his voice betrayed his desperation but he didn’t care. What emotion was worth caring about at this point?

There was one last look between them. Rhodey swore he could see the deep brown of Tony’s eyes even from that distance. Vividly. Lost and scared. It broke Rhodey’s heart in that moment, possibly one of his last moments and he wished he had never lived long enough to feel that.

Then they broke away. Tony ducked and began retreating in another direction to find whatever cover he could. 

It was the last thing Rhodey remembered. The back of his best friend and his heart falling in his chest. 

Like a flash bang Rhodey snapped back to reality. Sharp intake of breath, fear and adrenaline roaring through him, he tried to push upward again. 

“Tony,” he cried out like it was the only word he knew. 

The hands against his arms were surprised at his sudden outburst but they held strong. He could see them then. Men and women in uniform. His people. Their concerned and overworked expressions calming him down.

He let his head fall back to the dirt and stared up at the blue sky. It was beautiful and bright to the point that Rhodey wondered how it could dare be like that when everything was so fucked here on the ground it surrounded.

“T-Tony. Tony Stark. Where’s he at?” Rhodey asked in a lower voice that eased the worries of the men holding him down. They eased their grip and eventually let go all together. 

“It’ll be best if you stay still and try to be calm, sir. Think you have a concussion.”

That’s not what he asked. He waved his hand to shoo the news about himself away. Waves of dizzyingly bright lights flashed across his vision as he tried to sit up. The medic put a hand to his chest and Rhodey stopped. He was pressed back down like a groggy baby. 

Rhodey wasn’t with it enough to think clearly for a while after that. It was a flurry of men picking him up and putting him on a gurney to helicopters blowing sand up strong enough to sting your eyes and then he was in the sky again. This was never how a pilot wanted to be airborne though. 

A military hospital bed and some fluids had brought about a feeling of safety that Rhodey welcomed. But his feeling of good fortune was short lived after he was briefed on the loss of life. It was guilt that ate him after that. He questioned everybody he could about Tony but nobody would give him a straight answer. After a half hour of going round and round on the subject with getting no actual answer Rhodey finally snapped. He pounded his fist against the wall behind him and demanded to know.

No body was recovered. The only body not recovered. Tony Stark was officially MIA.

Rhodey buried his face in his hands. 

Upon his release Rhodey immediately put in a request to be part of the search and rescue. It was granted out of pity, he suspected. Everybody put on a good front to his face but he knew nobody expected to see Tony ever again. That’s how things go out there. 

Pepper had worked her way through the channels and had gotten a hold of Rhodey while he was recovering. Her voice was steady but it was obvious she had been crying. Pepper was probably already aware of the probabilities and potential outcomes for this situation but Rhodey tried his best to reassure her. She and Tony had always had something special which is maybe why Rhodey had never bothered to work up the nerve to do anything about his own feelings. It felt like stepping in between to trains on a crash course for one another. There was no stopping it and you were only going to get crushed to bits if you tried. 

Four times a week from then on they spoke over the phone or through email. Rhodey repeating himself each time like a record skipping but it was all they had. He wouldn’t stop searching for Tony. They were doing everything they could. The first sign of anything and Pepper would know. For her part, Pepper would reminisce over better times. The time Tony burned himself from the fire he had caused while trying to make eggs for them. That one time the three of them went on that trip to Hawaii. Any story that would make either of them smile and forget everything if only for a minute. 

The two of them had never been all that close but their shared love for Tony bonded them together in those weeks and months. They were the only two who really kept any hope alive for finding Tony. Rhodey’s commanding officers wanted to pull the plug but losing an asset like Tony Stark was a hard pill to swallow. With Rhodey insisting they continue and with concern of what could possibly come from Stark Industries if they gave up on their CEO’s rescue they had little choice but to keep throwing out the occasional manhunt. 

Helicopters and resources watching for any sign out of the ordinary were the routine search procedures. Either they’d get lucky and spot something with their own eyes or the people responsible would slip up and show up on radar or satellite surveillance. 

Going out time and time again and coming up empty began dragging Rhodey’s spirit down despite his determination. After a while even Pepper’s conversation couldn’t bring a smile to his lips. He broached the question that neither of them had dared asked before.

“What if we don’t find him, Pep?” Rhodey asked quietly. He leaned against the wall where the phone was mounted. The silence was vast and frightening. Closing his eyes he rubbed his forehead against the cold concrete. “There’s been no sign of him.”

Pepper breathed heavily and he wished he was there to give her a hug. He needed to feel that just as much as he figured she needed to. She was over there all alone, fighting to keep Tony’s life in order for that moment he’d get back to it. Rhodey wondered if she had been taking any time for her own life. Or if she was like him and figured without Tony in it there really wasn’t a life to go on with.

“He’s out there, Jim,” she finally said. Her voice cracked with emotion. “He’s got to be. You’ll find him.”

What else could she say Rhodey figured. 

“They’re going to send me back for a two week leave. Tell me I have to get away from this.”

Rhodey didn’t know how to tell them there was no getting away from it. 

“Don’t fight them,” Pepper said in a comforting voice. “You know where that got you last time. They’ll just add another week.” 

“I know.”

“You can stay with me if that’ll make it easier,” she offered and Rhodey let out a relieved sigh into the receiver. 

“Thanks, Pep. That’ll be--”

 

“Lt. Colonel, sir,” a short bald man, Findley was his name, said with a contained excitement bubbling inside him.

Rhodey turned around and nodded at him.

“There‘s been some activity,” he said quickly. “We’re heading out.”

Something close to hope jumped into his throat. This is the first time anything had warranted this since Tony’s capture. He remembered Pepper on the other line and put the phone to his mouth.

“Gotta go. Something’s happening.”

“Rhodey, what?”

“I’ll let you know.”

He hung up on her, not worrying if it was rude or if she’d even care. Rhodey geared up as quickly as he could, frowning at his shaking hands. It was hard not to get ahead of himself and it took everything he had not to physically drag his team by their collars to the helicopter to hurry them up. They were going as fast as they could. They knew their job and they knew the stakes. 

Rhodey was briefed on the ride out. There had been large explosions off to east in an area notorious for caves and tunnels that were sometimes used by the radicals in the area. The area was often too dangerous to send ground troops or vehicles through. 

Ten minutes into the trip with eyes on the ground below to search for any sign of life. It was nothing but sand and the occasional dried up brush. Then one of his men tapped his shoulder and pointed. Rhodey followed his direction and saw the dark spec in the distance. Changing course they headed toward it. 

Over a hill of sand and there he was. Tony Stark looking up into the glaringly bright sky and squinting at the passing helicopters, arms waving. 

“Get this bird on the ground,” Rhodey ordered through a smile that he couldn’t stop. 

Feet hit the sand before the helicopter had touched ground and Rhodey was making his way quickly to Tony, who was kneeling where had been found from the sky. He looked exhausted and there was blood caked to his clothes and skin. A bright mechanical circle protruding from his chest. But all precautions went out the window when Rhodey got within feet of him. 

It felt right to try and break any tension with an attempt to make Tony smile and it worked as he huffed a laugh at Rhodey’s joke. But then that moment was past and Rhodey couldn’t stop from bending down to the ground in front of Tony and pulling his friend to him and holding him there. He had failed to protect Tony before but now… now he would never let go. Tony pressed his face into Rhodey’s shoulder and suddenly Rhodey felt the sting of tears in his eyes that he fought down. 

A medic soon broke them apart. She gave Tony a quick check over and eyed the glowing object in Tony’s chest with an all out look of confusion. It was obvious it had been surgically implanted into him from the scarring but beyond that she was at a loss.

“It’s fine. It’s safe,” Tony said to reassure them. He reached for Rhodey and pushed himself to his feet by using Rhodey’s shoulder for leverage. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Rhodey supported Tony to the helicopter and sat next to him on the ride back. He wanted to pull Tony close and tell him how sorry he was. Tell him everything would be okay now. Rhodey didn’t know how to begin and he could see in Tony’s eyes that not everything would be okay… not anymore. So they sat in relative silence. Tony stared out the side of the helicopter at the passing landscape and Rhodey wondered just what had happened to him. He knew better than to ask that of Tony though. It wasn’t the right time and it was Tony’s story to tell. 

Back on base and Tony was taken from him. It was hard to see him wheeled away by the medical crew after just getting him back but he had been through some shit and needed to get looked at. Rhodey stood alone in the middle of the landing area wondering what now. Then he remembered Pepper.

He rushed to the nearest phone and dialed out. Technically, he wasn’t supposed to be doing this. But how could he keep this from her? She deserved to know before anybody else did. Before all those suits and ties found out for the sake of their money. 

She picked up on the second ring. “Jim?”

“Pep. We got him. We got Tony,” Rhodey let out in a rush. He was breathing heavily and smiled at hearing her surprised gasp.

“He’s safe? He’s okay?”

“Yes,” Rhodey pressed his back against the wall. “I mean, he’s been through some stuff. But he’s going to be okay. We’ll all be okay.”

“When are you two coming home?”

“Soon. Soon. We’ll be home soon.”

END


End file.
